This injury, according to the Raptors, is not related to his previous right elbow injury that sidelined him for 26 games earlier in the season.

Andrea Bargnani is averaging 12.7 points per game for the Toronto Raptors. (AP Photo)

Bargnani left Friday's game against the Los Angeles Lakers in the first quarter and didn't return.

Bargnani is averaging 12.7 points per game, his lowest output in five seasons, and shooting 40 percent from the field (31 percent from beyond the three-point arc).

His absence has once again forced coach Dwane Casey to alter his starting lineup. Without Rudy Gay (sore back) and Bargnani on Sunday against the Cavaliers, the Raptors used their 21st different starting lineup in 64 regular-season games, the Toronto Sun reported.

“I wish we had a rotation that I could put in ink pen and know I’m going to get this every night from this guy, this guy is going to be healthy tonight. Then you would have a healthy rotation and a stable rotation,”Casey told the newspaper.

“Right now, where we are and where we’re going, you’re probably going to see different lineups. We want to get a good look at Terrence Ross, JV (Jonas Valanciunas) … you’ll see different rotations.

“We’re tying to find out what we have but again, if we had a stable situation where we’d made four or five playoff runs then, OK, we’ll have a stable rotation.”

Although Bargnani had played in 14 of 15 games before this injury, he had been limited to 35 of the Raptors' 64 games this season.

According to ProBasketballTalk.com, the Raptors shopped Bargnani hard at the trade deadline, but there were no takers, probably because he has two years and $22 million left on his contract after this season and his relatively uninspiring play at his price this season.

Meanwhile, Casey told the Sun that Gay would be a game-time decision tonight against the Celtics after his team’s shootaround this morning in Boston.

“Even if we were in a playoff race, if they were not healthy, you could not rush a guy back and risk further injuries to them,” Casey said. “That’s the way we look at that.

“Rudy feels like he wants to come in and make a difference … but right when we could smell playoffs was when his back started flaring up on him. … Now somebody else has to step up.”